Kevin Purdy

Artichokes are, like mangoes, pineapples, and avocados, not inherently easy to cut up and prepare for eating. Serious Eats suggests getting some lemons, water, and a sharp knife ready, then digging in to pull out every single edible piece.

My absolute favorite summer treat has to be a fresh ripe mango - but boy have I made a fool of…
Read more Read more

As you might gather from their very names, artichokes aren't the type of vegetable you can simply start cutting up and swallowing. Different sections of an artichoke—outer leaves, inner leaves, the heart—cook differently and aren't intuitive to get to. Food blog Serious Eats suggests some smart means of prepping both a whole artichoke with a knife and scissors, or just the delicious artichoke heart with a melon baller or other tiny tool. Keep some water with a lemon squeezed into it on hand, too, to keep your artichoke from discoloring while you cut.

The step-by-step process is documented more fully at the Serious Eats post, and we'd dig hearing from our readers how you cut up your own 'chokes in the comments.